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Great Toe

While certainly not the largest joint in your body, the loss of toe motion can dramatically impact your ability to walk normally. The MPJ Extensionater® is the only device engineered to create the natural motion that normally occurs during gait.

Small Body Part, big problem. Losing motion of the great toe is painful, and changes the way a person walks.

MPJ Extensionater® re-creates physiological motion.

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MPJ EXTENSIONATER®

The Metatarsophalangeal Joint (MPJ) plays a role for walking, running, playing sports. All of these propelling movements require a full range of motion in the big toe. The ERMI MPJ Extensionater® helps patients with hallux limitus or hallux rigidus - severely limited motion in the metatarsophalangeal joint (MPJ) at the base of the big toe. The device can be configured to promote both extension and flexion by mimicking the position of the foot and toe while walking.

The Metatarsophalangeal Joint (MPJ) plays a role for walking, running, playing sports. All of these propelling movements require full range of motion in the big toe.

The first metatarsophalangeal joint (MPJ) is the joint at the base of the big toe. A smooth working MPJ is essential for normal gait. The ERMI MPJ Extensionater® helps patients with hallux limitus or hallux rigidus . The device can be configured to promote both extension and flexion by mimicking the position of the foot and toe while walking. Controlled by the patient, our patented air bladder technology provides just the right amount of stretch to help the MPJ begin to glide normally.

Following surgery or injury such as “turf toe”, patients often develop arthrofibrosis in the MPJ – an abnormal grown of fibrous “scar tissue” around the joint – which leads to loss of motion.

In ability to freely move the MPJ causes people to compensate by limping, which further stresses the joints above, from the ankle all the way to the spine. Loss of Motion isn’t unusual in the first few weeks after injury or surgery. However, as many as 20 percent of patients suffer from activity limiting motion for a much longer period of time.

“For therapy, we would prefer to restore lost motion, rather than accommodate for it.” – Robert B. Weinstein, DPM.